Dixon01

I have a camera system at my home. The cameras are ok, but not great (540 lines and 18 IRs). Look reasonably good in daylight, but a bit too narrow in their night view. I may upgrade them eventually, but for now I am just looking for a decent DVR (8 channel) to pair them with. My house is already wired to feed the signal to all the TVs in the house, so local viewing is easy when we want to see it. I would like to be able to view the cameras (at a minimum one at a time and selectable) on a Mac, on an iPad and on iphone and/or blackberry. While I realize they are not top shelf, the Lorex DVRs look like they allow this type of viewing. The Edge models looks perfect, except it doesn't have basic BNC video out (only VGA--what planet are these guys on?), which I need to feed the signal to my TVs. The Edge + appears to have a composite video (yellow) output, but no mention is made of it even in the manual, so who knows. The Lorex Link model looks like it might also work, although likely at a lower pic quality. Budget-wise I'd like to keep it under $600-700, but would consider a bit more if functionality was significantly upgraded. The primary purpose is to keep an eye on the house, both when home and when away. Any suggestions? Thx in advance.

Thanks. I wrote off the Lorex idea pretty quickly. I am drawn to the HD recording of the Gen IV unit if I can find a good place to source it, although maybe that is overkill for my purposes. In any event, always appreciate more options to consider.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am really leaning toward the Gen IV unit--just hard to locate a storefront/online store where I have some confidence in who I am dealing with (due to my own lack of experience with these types of products, not due to any fault of the stores--I just don't know who is legit). Thanks for all the replies. This was very helpful in narrowing down my choice.

Been looking at these some more and close to buying. Do any of you have any info/experience with WattWire, who sells through a website call securitycamera1 dot com [avoiding link pursuant to rules] Thanks again for all the replies and assistance.

Ok. Thx. Any particular retailers you'd recommend for purchasing the Gen IV DVR? I am not familiar with all these "spy" stores. Again, thanks for the input. Very helpful.

bricor--do you have one of their DVRs? If so, which one? It is a bit more than I wanted to spend, but the Enterprise version is very tempting if the recorded video looks that good on all channels. The consumer model (w D1 on one recorded channel) looks like a great bargain if the other three channels are at least decent when recorded. My fear of stepping up to the Enterpirse model is that this seems to be a somewhat "suspect" company--name changes, no local contact/address info on website etc. I worry that there would be zero support or that they may just disappear (along with their iphone app) someday. Are people on this forum familiar with the company, and are they "for real"?

Interesting option. Thanks for the info.

Thx I only need composite for the TV viewing. But for that I'd be less fussed about it and maybe not miss it. My ideal DVR would have composite, VGA and HDMI outputs. Appreciate the input. Hopefully others have some experience with Lorex, or another model that works well with the Apple products.

I was looking at VGA splitters, but for reasons involving other technology in the house, all my TV cat5 runs go to another location in the house--whereas the camera wires all feed to a different media closet. I am all for using a VGA monitor, but find it strange that a product would not offer another output so that there are multiple connection options. In any event, I am perfectly happy with the camera pic on the TVs (we just use the TV viewing option to monitor the kids and to see who is at the front door, etc). They serve exactly the purpose they were designed for. Now I am focused on improving the performance via computer and smart phone applications. I just need to solve my Mac/iPad viewing issue. Are you saying that the Lorex is a good option if I can solve my connection issues, or did you just want to bust my chops